Independent candidate joins Ohio’s US Senate race

The Columbus Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/1sdpyMw ) the office of Secretary of State Jon Husted has confirmed that truck driver Scott Rupert of Mechanicsburg submitted 5,828 valid petition signatures to qualify for the Nov. 8 ballot.

The 52-year-old Rupert also ran as an independent in 2012, receiving 4.6 percent of the votes— a quarter million —in the race in which incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel.

He spent about $3,000 on his last campaign.

The Portman-Strickland campaign battle is expected to be one of the nation’s highest-spending as Democrats seek to unseat enough incumbents to retake control of the Senate.